SOUND CHECK: Steel Panther prepped to give fans All You Can Eat'

Steel Panther is ready to feed some new music to its minions — almost literally.

The unapologetically libidinous comic metal band from Los Angeles, many of whose song titles are unpublishable in this forum, is prepping its third album, “All You Can Eat,” for release in the spring, and frontman Michael Starr promises that fans will once again be able to headbang with smiles on their faces.

“I would say it’s a little edgier, a little heavier, a little angrier but yet still has all the elements Steel Panther fans are gonna like,” says Starr (real name Ralph Saenz), 48, who co-founded Steel Panther during 2000 after tenures in the bands Atomic Punks and LA Guns. “We haven’t lost our energy as far as where our attitude is and the style of music we’re gonna do.

“I do think this is the best record we’ve done so far. Our first two records we were still playing covers, but this year we’ve been doing our own music, so this is really us coming into our own.”

Steel Panther has already released a single (title unprintable) from “All You Can Eat,” and it runs the regularly updated Steel Panther TV channel on YouTube. A full slate of concerts is on tap, including plenty of spring and summer festivals in Europe, and Starr says he and his bandmates are hoping for big things in the coming year after sending their first two albums to the top of the Billboard Comedy Albums chart.

“Sales are not really our strong suit. Our strong suit has really been performance-based — people like to come see us play, and most of our audience just downloads it for free, which is totally killer,” Starr explains. “So our next step, really, is we want to be an arena band. When we go to do shows in Europe next year we’re doing up to 5,000-seaters, and that’s the step right before arenas, so that’s really cool.

“And hopefully the States will start to follow that lead.”

FYI: Steel Panther, Artificial Agent and the Beggars perform Saturday, Dec. 21, at the Royal Oak Music Theatre, 318 W. Fourth St. Doors open at 8 p.m. Tickets are $15 in advance, $20 day of show. Call 248-399-2980 or visit www.royaloakmusictheatre.com.